The present invention generally relates to a sealing joint, and more particularly to a joint intended for effecting seal around a globally cylindrical element passing through an opening made in two elements positioned one on the other to form a closed envelope, or in a single element formed so as to be able to open elastically along an edge in order to release the globally cylindrical element.
Such sealing joints are located around cables entering or emerging from a connection box. They pass through orifices formed partly in the bottom of the box and partly in the lid thereof
Such joints are also used around discs of protecting sleeves employed for insulating from the environment the connected ends of cables, for example cables of a communication network. These sleeves usually comprise two discs disposed around the incoming cables and the outgoing cables and a globally cylindrical envelope positioned around said discs in order tightly to seal the space included between these discs in which the connection of the cables is effected. The envelope may be made in one longitudinally slit piece, which is sufficiently elastic to be able to widen the slit in order to position the envelope around the discs or to withdraw it. The envelope may also be made in two parts positioned on either side of the discs.
The connection boxes and the protection sleeves, as well as the other devices of similar configuration must sometimes be open in order to modify the connections that they contain. During these interventions, it is often necessary to be able to remove the cables, the discs, or any other element circumferentially surrounded by a sealing joint.
The joints usually employed are continuous, which does not make it possible to intervene on the element that they surround without cutting them.
The intervening personnel must then cut the joint as cleanly as possible then adhere the ends of the joint end to end after the intervention.
These operations, which are always delicate to effect even in the favourable environment of a workshop, are difficult to carry out successfully when they must be effected at the top of a pole or in a gallery.
Flat joints have also been proposed, for example in DE 27 42 760 and in FR 2 399 752, whose ends must be adhered on one another during assembly. During an intervention, it is necessary either to unstick the ends or cut the joint at another point.
Documents EP-A-0 695 900, FR-A-2 572 156 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,149,108 may also be cited as state of the art, which show that a joint is known, intended to be wound circumferentially around a substantially cylindrical element, the ends of said joint along the longitudinal axis of the joint comprising means adapted to be removably fitted in one another in order to be mutually attached or detached.
The present invention tends to solve this problem by proposing a joint intended to be wound circumferentially around a substantially cylindrical element, the ends of said joint along the longitudinal axis of the joint comprising means adapted to be removably fitted in one another in order to be mutually attached or detached, characterized in that the fittable means comprise, at each longitudinal end of the joint, a projecting tongue and a short tongue located side by side and on either side of the longitudinal axis, the projecting tongue being longer, longitudinally, than the short tongue, in that the projecting tongues, and consequently the short tongues, of the two longitudinal ends of the joint are arranged on either Amended sheet side of the longitudinal axis so that the projecting tongue of one end fits with the short tongue of the other end when the joint is wound on the substantially cylindrical element,
and in that the projecting and short tongues bear means allowing attachment and detachment thereof.
The joint according to the invention is also noteworthy in that:
the projecting tongue terminates in a tip less wide and less thick than it,
The projecting tongue terminates in a tip less wide and less thick than the projecting tongue itself.
the tip is traversed by an orifice,
the tip is disposed in line with the upper surface of the joint,
said short tongue presents a recess of the same shape and same thickness as the tip,
a stud with the same diameter as the orifice of the tip is formed in the recess,
the tip and the recess are respectively connected to the lateral edges of the joint by inclined faces,
the ends present an assembly of concave and convex cut-outs made symmetrically so as to be able to be positioned in one another during closure of the joint,
each of the ends of the joint presents recesses turned towards the upper face or towards the lower face of the joint,
the recesses turned towards the lower face of the joint are formed in projecting tongues,
the recesses turned towards the upper face of the joint bear studs while the wall of the recesses turned towards the lower face of the joint is traversed by an orifice.